Pop Screen - S2 Ep37: Pop Screen: Cosmic Slop (with Rob Simpson)

S2 Ep37: Pop Screen: Cosmic Slop (with Rob Simpson)

10/07/21 • 51 min

A trilogy of Black horror and science fiction tales, hosted by the disembodied floating head of funk legend George Clinton? It happened! Kicking off Pop Screen's Halloween month, Geek Show kingpin Rob joins us once again to look at one of the stranger products of HBO's post-Tales from the Crypt hunt for a new anthology series - Reginald D Hudlin's Cosmic Slop.
Quickly forgotten, it was edited into a three-part feature for the home video market, and was rediscovered in the run-up to Jordan Peele's Twilight Zone reboot. Rob and Graham discuss how Cosmic Slop matches up to more modern attempts at racial commentary in genre film, as well as the lost world of pre-Sopranos HBO, George Clinton's unforgettable - no matter how hard you try - role in Flying Lotus's film Kuso, the folk horror themes of the haunting middle section and the unexpected role the first story played in the 2012 American election. Thanks, Obama!
If you want to help us keep exploring films that are every bit as obscure and whacked as Cosmic Slop, you can donate to our Patreon, where you'll get a bonus episode of Pop Screen every month, access to our other, entirely Patreon-exclusive podcast Director's Lottery, two weekly Doctor Who reviews from Graham and more. Follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook for more news about what we're doing next.
#popscreen #moviereview #cosmicslop #horror #sciencefiction #georgeclinton #reginaldhudlin #funk #funkadelic #anthologyfilm #hbo

Previous Episode

S2 Ep36: Pop Screen: A Dog Called Money (with Aidan F)

This week, Pop Screen has been thinking about a line drawn in the sand: specifically, a line drawn between the reasonable criticisms of PJ Harvey's 2016 album The Hope Six Demolition Project, and the ones that took her to task for not working out a viable model for bringing stable democracy to Afghanistan. (Yes, really) 2019's Seamus Murphy-directed documentary A Dog Called Money reopened the controversies, and it is this film that Aidan and Graham have gathered to discuss this week.
On the way, we also consider the always-surprising career of Harvey, as well as our favourite albums by her. We talk about Hope Six's status as an album that feels eerily predictive of 2016's political turmoil, and the many bizarrely-titled offcuts from the record that appear in this film and nowhere else. It's the closest we've ever got to a polemic: we really love this album, we really love this film, we really love PJ Harvey and we're sure we can convert you too.
If we were a bit savvier, we'd expend all this persuasive power on getting you to donate to our Patreon, where you can get bonus episodes of Pop Screen, exclusive access to our other movie podcast Director's Lottery, Graham's Doctor Who reviews and more. Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for all the latest news!
#popscreen #moviereviews #adogcalledmoney #pjharvey #thehopesixdemolitionproject #documentary #documentaryfilms #seamusmurphy #mercuryprize

Next Episode

S2 Ep38: Pop Screen: Antebellum (with Mick Snowden)

Well, we're certainly not pro-bellum. This week Mick from Behold! pod joins us again to look at a film that seems to have everything going for it: a pair of hotly-tipped debuting directors, a provocative, mind-bending premise, and a quality cast. Even more promisingly, that quality cast is headed up by Janelle Monae, who Graham cites as the only musician capable of filling the void left by Prince and David Bowie.
And yet Antebellum received a tepid reaction on release, and Graham and Mick are here to figure out what went wrong. Among the suspects: its gorgeous but showy visual style, its absolute forehead-slapper of a twist and - the ultimate sin - not doing right by Janelle Monae, and what she means to the culture. Yet there's also room to talk about the film's positive elements, as well as an extended detour around the Wikipedia page for the short-lived 1970s band The Normal. For some reason.
We can't possibly segue from that, so let's cut to the chase: we've got a Patreon, and if you donate to that Patreon you get loads of stuff including a monthly bonus episode of this very podcast - this month's is about Bubba Ho-Tep - our other movie podcast Director's Lottery, Graham's twice-weekly Doctor Who reviews, and more. For more information, follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
#popscreen #moviereviews #bushandrentz #janellemonae #horror #antebellum #jenamalone #gaboureysidibe